Blackheart the Inciter (Mind Controlling boss2 of Shadow Labs)

[Kothnok]

Having run Shadow Labrynth less than a handful of times, I mistakenly latched onto a strategy for fighting this boss when in reality it was just bad MC luck I was trying to avoid in the first place.  While I found out that it is good for high damage dealers to be either out of mana or out of cooldowns just before a Mass Mind Control, that by no means should also mean that it's good to stay that way the whole fight (my apologies to my groups).  His incredibly annoying/frustrating boss powers are a 15 second long Mind Control where all party members fight each other (using up cooldowns in the process) and a nasty stomp that deals a lot of damage and clears his aggro list.  The standard approaches to tanking this boss won't work because he will dump aggro with every stomp and after every Mind Control segment. 

I did some research today and learned a lot about this particular fight.  I found the Wiki link to this boss contains a lot of the more helpful tips and strategies for this encounter conveniently put in one place.  Many specific class talents can be used to mitigate a lot of the chaos that goes on during this fight, but if you don't have access to them... well... that's where some of the strategies will be more important.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Blackheart_the_Inciter

Many of the strategies I've seen have a "just before he MC's, do x...".  Unfortunately, his shout doesn't occur until after you are mind controlled, so there is no warning; not to mention it's not on a fixed timer so you cannot even anticipate right when he will cast mind control.  I personally found those strategies to be the least helpful.

For me, the most intriguing tips were the placement of the party on the two mounds near the rear gate and the placing of a freeze trap under the feet of your healer so that during MC, there's a good chance of being frozen during that segment.  Not to mention the importance of letting your tank regain aggro after a stomp as well as after being MC'd.

[un4]

Don't put the rogue next to the healer.  I vanished and 1-shotted our priest the other day. 

[Shadowwolf]

Ive never done the drain mana method as its never been that big a deal before. Generally the MC slugfest usually can be healed back with little impact on the healer when its over. Plus its not wise to have your dps out of mana the majority of the fight unless you have melee dps to compensate. If the majority of the group is casters, everyone being oom results in nothing being done to the boss.

[Twist]

Normally he makes me do silly things, rain of fire around no one, or lifetap.  but the other night he made me use seed of corruption... that wasn't good, no one died, but everyone was knocked down quite a bit, heh.  2nd go around he made me lifetap to low health and our tank killed me.  fun times

[Arcdelad]

this boss fight is actually one of my favorite BC fights...the groups ive been in usually egg each other on as we beat the crap out of each other

having said that, its important for the tank to regrab aggro after the MC...this can be trcky sometimes if hes far away, but luckily this guy doesnt do big damage at all...even a soft clothie can withstand a few whacks by this guy and be okay...

what blows my mind about this fight is how I magically have the ability "Feral Charge" when he MC's me, even though I dont have this ability otherwise (its a talent I dont have any points in)...<shrugs>

[Lynette]

Other tips I use with my rogue for this fight:

• Use my best skills before the first MC since the cool down on them will prohibit their use for most of the fight
• Unequip my range item so I cannot attack from a distance
• Time it so that I sprint away from the group roughly 10 seconds before the MC - rendering me nearly harmless during the MC

[JohnnieRat]

He always pops Avenging Wrath on my behalf and then has me heal myself. Sometimes he'll have me hit someone for 117 (Holy/Prot spec not a threat without seals, judgements and holy shocks which he doesn't use). I did get AP, PoM, Pyro'd while in a PuG once though... hilarity did not ensue

[voctovian]

I have found he will make me use lay on hands... grrr, not fun when it blows all my mana.  The biggest concern are high DPS classes that gain aggro on the boss.  While 800 melee damage on cloth is not much, when you only have 2k left, that is 5 seconds before you die.  PoM and Pyroblast (or other high threat attacks) are generally a bad idea immediately after MC breaks .  Immediately after the MC is realeased is a great time to use a healthstone, healing pot and bandage.  That should give the healer and tank ample time to establish aggro and get everyone topped up.